The New York Times has launched a crackdown on Wordle clones, issuing copyright takedown notices against hundreds of games on GitHub, including those that are significantly different from Wordle, such as foreign language variants and games with unique gameplay elements. This move has affected nearly 2000 Wordle clones, sparking a debate on the originality of Wordle itself, given its resemblance to the game show Lingo. Among the affected is the Shetland Wordle, a dialect version of the game. In addition to this legal action, The New York Times has also been focusing on enhancing its own gaming offerings. It recently introduced a new word-search game called Strands, which has been praised for its innovation in the genre, and redesigned its NYT Games app to improve game discovery and simplify navigation for users, marking a significant step in the newspaper-game revival.
The New York Times is busy threatening Wordle clones, meanwhile Wordle is literally a clone of a game show called Lingo https://t.co/43RZb8BkAP
The New York Times is targeting Wordle clones with legal takedowns https://t.co/06terPjoiX
NYT has a new game. Strands #5 “Do the do” 💡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🟡💡🔵 🔵 https://t.co/iKRvgKEUou
New York Times takedown domino effect hits nearly 2000 Wordle clones https://t.co/csH6r9I0FL https://t.co/JL9370JU80
Creators of a Shetland dialect version of the online word game Wordle have been told it has to be taken down. https://t.co/8WQByZIZXW
The New York Times is cracking down on Wordle clones https://t.co/yrBWRv7WEO https://t.co/tFDsmr6iRM
New York Times legal threat to Shetland Wordle https://t.co/n1CgXNthoD
New from 404 Media: the NYTimes is going on a takedown demand rampage, ordering hundreds of games on Github be removed because they allegedly are Wordle clones. Except some of them are just forks and play entirely differently from Wordle itself https://t.co/epUH0LNm9G
NEW: The NY Times has filed a copyright takedown against hundreds of Wordle variants, including foreign language variants, completely different games, and a Wordle clone where the answer is always "CHUNK" https://t.co/cbFnHEvyHA
NYT Games debuts redesigned app to boost discovery and simplify navigation https://t.co/p9xUBribRa
Really nice story by @ibogost about not just the brand new NYT game, but also about the purpose of the paper's games in general, the feelings they can provoke https://t.co/mYzAwNuisl
I wrote about the New York Times's newspaper-game revival, though the lens of its latest title, a pretty interesting take on the word-search called Strands. https://t.co/2qNItxqz6H
“The New York Times” has made a word-search game that is actually fun, @ibogost writes. How Strands does the impossible: https://t.co/gHoR16K9t2